Sunday, November 01, 1964

Introducing, he said: The true preaching of Dharma goes beyond
preaching or not preaching (true preaching is not preaching). True
listening to Dharma is not only a matter of listening or not (true
listening is no listening). If the true word is beyond perception
(true preaching is no preaching), it may be better not to speak. If
true listening is something other than listening or not (true
listening is not listening), it may be better not to speak.

However, to speak of Dharma without saying anything about it,
and to listen to it without ideas about it are perfect ways to
transmit right Dharma. This no-preaching and no-listening is all
that is needed.

Well, you are in my monastery and listening to my words. But how
can you avoid the difficulties to have perfect understanding of
right Dharma by words.?

If you have the wisdom to get through these difficulties, I will
introduce you to an example to ponder.

Notes by Reverend Suzuki on the above
translation.

1. I gave a free but faithful rendering of the original text
according to the instruction of my Master , Kishizawa
Ian-roshi.

Usually no is negative, but no at the same time is a stronger
affirmative than yes. It means emancipation from yes and no. No
word means right word under some circumstances, and at the same
time, under other circumstances, it means that the connotation of
the word should be denied. Saying no form, no color, should be
understood in the same way.

2. Sentences in the parentheses are important parts which I
translated literally.

3. At the same time, this no gives new life to dead Buddhist
ivory-tower philosophy, and to rigid moral concepts and formal
rituals. The constant practice of this no has been the history of
Buddhism.

Main Subject

Attention! A monk asked the great teacher Ba-so: "I am not
asking you about the Four (negative) Propositions, and the One
Hundred Negations (of Nagarjuna). But please point out the
intention of Bodhidharma's coming to the West (China).

Ba-so said: Today I am very tired and I cannot explain it to
you. Go get an answer from Chi-zo. The monk went to Chi-zo and
asked him the same thing. Chi-zo said, "Why did you not ask the
Great teacher?" The monk said, "I did, but he told me to come to
you." Chi-zo said, "Today I have a headache and cannot explain the
matter to you. Go ask E-kai (Hyaku-jo). So the monk asked E-kai who
said, "I do not have anything to answer in this realm." The monk
went back to Ba-so and told him the whole story. Ba-so said,
"Chi-zo had a white head, and Hyaku-jo a black head."

Notes by Reverend Suzuki on the above.

The Four Propositions and One Hundred Negations of Nargajuna are
as follows:

1. Everything that is, does not come out from itself.
(singularity)

2. Everything that is, does not come from something else.
(plurality)

3. Everything that is, does not result from adding one thing to
another. (existence)

4. Everything that is, does not come out from nothing.
(non-existence)

About these propositions, four types of statements can be made:
affirmative, negative, affirmative and negative, and the negation
of both affirmative and negative.

(4 x 4 = 16)

About these sixteen, three kinds of statements can be made:
past, present , future. (16 x 3 = 48)

And about these forty-eight, there can be two aspects: the
actual (the real), and the potential (the ideal). (2 x 48 = 96)

Together with the original four propositions there are 100
negative propositions.

(96 + 4 = 100)

After all these efforts, still we cannot identify either
ontological or phenomenal existence, and we cannot find any reason
to be attached to some special metaphysical entity or to the
phenomenal world.

However, in Note 1 of the Introductory Word, I have explained
the true meaning of Buddhist negation. Negation after negation, we
turn over and renew our perception and pre-conceived ideas: in
other words, wiping out mirror-like mind in each moment, we can
observe everything as it is.

Here everything as-it-is means everything means everything
as-it-should-be, because everything as-it-is-in-the-usual-sense
always should be negated, one thing after another-even though we
are concentrated on one thing. The result of the practice of
negating everything-as-it-is-in-the-usual-sense is what we mean by
everything-as-it-is. The-way-everything-should-be should be
accepted as the-way-everything-is. this acceptance should be the
most important point in Nagarjuna's Middle Way.

When we practice zazen in the right way, this acceptance takes
place. In the realm of Zen-mind, transmitted from Buddha to Buddha,
from patriarch to patriarch, there is no noumena or phenomena, no
subjectivity or objectivity, no object to be criticized or subject
to be critical. Here we come to the true understanding of the
so-called non-attachment or oneness-of-duality. In its true sense
the Middle Way, which is beyond the Four Negative Propositions and
One Hundred Negations, is not different from the transmitted way of
zazen. This is the so-called 'Intention of Bodhidharma's coming to
the West' or shobogenzonehanmyoshin.

But En-go presents us-his students-with a problem of whether
this monk did understand the true meaning of the One Hundred
Negations, when the monk asked his question. If he had had a true
understanding of Nagarjuna's One Hundred Negations and had asked
about our traditional way of practice., his questions should have
been at the same time an answer to his own problem. So En-go says:
If I had been the monk, I would have bowed three times, as soon as
Ba-so said something.

Taking up again the thread of the subject, the monk who thought
he knew what the One Hundred Negations were, did not have a true
understanding of them at all. And he asked, "What is Bodhidharma's
zazen?" Ba-so who knew that this monk was not prepared to listen to
the right Dharma, did not answer the question. He only said, "Today
I am very tired so I cannot explain it to you. Go ask Chi-zo."

True expounding of Dharma is not done only by preaching. In
everything we do at the monastery we should express the true
Dharma. The true study of Buddhism is not studied by mouth and
ears. To stay at a monastery without knowing one is always amidst
the Dharma is quite useless. To seek for Dharma without knowing one
is always exposed in the voiceless voice of Dharma was what the
monk was doing. Ba-so and his two disciples Chi-zo and Hyaku-jo
wanted him to stay out of this kind of delusive study of Zen. This
why Ba-so said, "I don't feel well, go get an answer from
Chi-zo."

When Chi-zo found the monk coming from Ba-so, in spite of
Ba-so's kind instruction, he must have felt helpless and said:
"Today I have a headache and cannot explain it to you. Go ask
Hyaku-jo."

So the monk went back to Hyaku-jo who, not liking to expose the
true way in useless discussion, said, "No understanding is my
understanding in the realm of reality."

The monk then went back to Ba-so, the Great Teacher, and told
him the whole story. Ba-so said: Chi-zo the white-headed, and
Hyaku-jo the black-headed.

I visited the Cambridge Buddhist Association. In Cambridge there
is a Cambridge Buddhist Association; in San Francisco there is Zen
Center. There is one and yet two, two and yet one, as they should
be, as everything is under some particular situation.

Bodhidharma's intention in coming to the West cannot be
understood by people who seek Buddhism without knowing Buddhism is
everywhere. Salt is white chemical, nearly the same as sugar in
appearance. If we do not know which is which, we try a little on
some food. We do not take the salt alone, but always with food, as
something other than a white chemical, as, maybe, the most
important seasoning in our actual life. It is in oceans, rivers,
plants, trees, in everything. It is in every food we take. Without
salt nothing exists. We say a pickle is salty and that cake is
sweet, but in cake there is salt, it makes the cake more sweet.

This is why Ba-so said, "Chi-zo the white head-geared, and
Hyaku-jo the black head-geared."

Without the spirit transmitted from Bodhidharma, there is no
black-hatted Chi-zo or white-hatted Hyaku-jo. Chi-zo should be
Chi-zo and Hyaku-jo should be Hyaku-jo.

Our traditional way of understanding is not different from being
concentrated on the actual fact which we face on each moment.